Kismet
by theapplecores
Summary: They're supposed to be dead. Roxas wants out. Axel wants in. And of course Diz is just an overall ass. Akuroku.
1. A Thoroughly Interesting Introduction

Author's Note: I don't have much to say about this… hmmm, let's see, this is just the introduction sort of thing so the first chapter will be posted soon, sometime this week or weekend or something amazing like that. Reviews are love.

...

Axel remembered watching them. He remembered watching them as they killed the last of his friends. Or not really his friends, they had really only had one thing in common.

Axel floated above them, or not really floated, hovered maybe. Except it was hard to tell without a body. He watched and silently lamented the lost of an _acquaintance_. A business partner if you will. But of course he wanted them to win. He had killed himself for them after all.

And was he dead? It would make sense from the way he was hovering over them, watching as _Riku_ came to rescue them. Axel was jealous, unbelievably mind numbingly jealous and if his mind was numb then he must have a mind and if he had a mind he must have been alive. But all of that didn't really matter as he watched _them_ hug _Riku_. Or rather him. He didn't mind that Sora took Riku by the hand and helped him up hooking a hand through Riku's pants and groping his ass. But what did matter was that Roxas was inside Sora and hooking a hand through Riku's pants and _groping _his **ass**.

He probably should have been as possessive over Sora as he was over Roxas because they were the same person. But they weren't, not _really_. They were two separate entities that originated from the same place, like identical twins or something. Except they weren't identical. Roxas was different. Really different. Different from everyone.

If only Roxas knew that.

Axel wasn't hovering anymore, he was walking behind them, he sat down when they sat down and he watched. He watched as _they_ placed _their_ hand in Riku's and Riku looked up at _them_ forlorn. Axel watched as Riku tried to pull away from _them_ and _they_ turned to yell at him. Riku looked abashed. Axel got a sick kind of satisfaction from it. Then _they_ grabbed Riku's hands as Riku tired to look away. _They _yelled at Riku tears forming in _their_ eyes and Riku yelled at _them. _Axel got pissed, he wanted to reach out and cuff Riku. Smack him until he apologized. Then Riku was crying. Axel was okay with Riku crying. Riku he could handle. But then _they_ were holding him, _coddling _the fucker. And Riku was sobbing into their chest, bringing up great heaving rattling sobs that in turn shook _their _body. And Axel sulked. He sat and glared.

_They _leaned in, and _they_ **kissed** Riku.

And then Riku kissed back.

_They_ sunk into the kiss and suddenly it was no longer _they_. Sora was no longer shining with the inner brightness that was Roxas; it was replaced, pushed out by a more dominant light.

It was just like him to have a goddamn sixth sense about Roxas.

Axel let out a breath of relief he didn't know he had been holding. A breath that he felt a bit guilty about. Now Roxas was dead too.

Roxas wouldn't be kissing Riku, Roxas would be eating sea salt ice cream with Axel and drooping his blonde head against Axel's collarbone after a battle.

That was how it should be.

Axel was a little bit pissed too.

He had just died for the twerp and he would just disappear like that.

He'd have to remember to give him hell when he got to wherever they were going.

But then Axel was flying backwards, he felt his body again, knew it was encasing the thing that had previously been floating around. For lack of a better word his soul.

He was barreling backwards, headfirst, wind shooting his hair into his face, forcing his eyes shut from sheer the velocity.

And he slept.

Roxas fought side by side with Axel.

Like they always had.

Roxas had never really wanted to fight with anyone else, not really. And he had blown it all. Maybe it was the way he had known it was all inevitable, it all had to end. He couldn't fight forever, the Organization had to die out. Maybe not in the way it did, but it had to. It was a stupid plan anyway. It was a plan that none of them really understood. Even Xemnas was bluffing his way through it. Nothing gold can stay and all that.

But still, if Roxas hadn't left, if he hadn't been so fucking stupid maybe he wouldn't be dying.

He could tell, he hadn't meshed with Sora, it didn't work that way.

Nothing ever worked that way.

Roxas was jaded, and he wasn't afraid to admit it.

And then that ass went and sacrificed himself. And he had to go and say all of those unbelievably gay things. He had to go and make Roxas' damn eyes water. Axel would have made fun of him for that. And that only enforced the need to break into sobs.

But his body wouldn't let him. It wasn't really his body anyway. He was just sharing it.

No, not even sharing it. Leeching off of it, like some blood thirsty parasite, but getting no nourishment.

Roxas felt little pieces of him shrink away. Little memories would disappear; there were blanks he couldn't fill. Just like in the simulated Twilight Town. He had done everything he could to regain his memories and now he was losing them again. Even the ones about Axel, especially the ones about Axel.

He didn't want to lose Axel. Not again.

When Roxas had set out in search of Sora he had never wanted this. He never really knew what he had wanted from Sora, all of the reasons he could think of now where stupid. Retarded even.

He tried not to think about it.

Roxas wondered why he could still think. Or rather, why he could think and not have Sora hear him. He wanted to be heard, to say "by the way Sora, I'm here angsting over my best friend that just sacrificed himself for you". He really shouldn't want Sora to hear him, because if Sora heard him then he would feel bad. And there really was no reason to make Sora feel bad.

It wasn't Sora's fault Roxas had screwed up everything.

Roxas missed Axel.

He didn't even notice as Xemnas was killed. He watched but it didn't register. Roxas had known he wouldn't survive anyway. He was too scared of dying, he was a coward, in an almost lovable way, and he angsted more then Roxas.

So Xemnas was dead.

And so was Axel.

Roxas retreated in Sora's mind, curling up in the smallest corner.

He was cold, empty, dark. He didn't feel like he had a heart.

It sucked.

Sora was gripping Riku's hand, tightly, and Roxas was subjected to Sora's thoughts. The longing he felt for Riku. It hurt Roxas when Riku pulled his hand away. It hurt Roxas because it hurt Sora. And then Sora grabbed Riku and held him there, yelling at him all the emotions Roxas now felt vicariously. Sora was crying, tears rolling down his face as he gripped down too hard on Riku's hands. Begging him to understand.

And then Riku broke down.

And he choked out words that hurt to say and Roxas felt himself grow smaller and smaller inside Sora. Suffocated by Sora's feelings, burrowing down in his throat and filling up his ears and nostrils, it cut off all breath. Although the breath must have been figurative because Roxas didn't breathe now himself, he took breaths through Sora. Sora leaned forward and touched lips with Riku and Roxas felt it on his lips, he felt it through the choking. It burned on his skin, white hot, like light. But it burned like darkness, gnawing away at what was left of Roxas. Eating his soul, burning dots in it like it was a reel from an old movie, it ached.

And he disappeared.

It was instantaneous. One moment he was in Sora, the next he was not. He could no longer think, it was all abyss, it wiped everything from his mind. It implanted new things. It was Diz all over again. Even though Roxas was not conscious he fought back his mind stealthily locking away bits and pieces he didn't want to forget.

Which was practically everything.

Which was Axel.

His body came back, and he started back into consciousness. But he was a new Roxas.

Roxas number three, or maybe four.

Roxas didn't know.

He didn't know anything about his past life.

And he slept.

...

Axel woke up in the slow blinking way he always did. His eyes slowly opened and blinked once, and then twice before it registered he was awake. He lay there for a moment then rolled over and sat up searching for the time. He blinked at the clock beside the bed he was laying in which slowly clicked to eight fifteen before blaring some generic pop station.

He rolled out of bed to make himself some tea.

Just like he always did.

It didn't matter that he had no clue whose house he was in. Nothing would disrupt Axel's routine. He bustled around the kitchen shimmying to the music emitting from the bedroom. He finally found the kettle and teabags and hummed to himself as he pulled some eggs from the fridge in the corner cracking them into a greased frying pan. He didn't bother to cook them all the way seeing as he was oddly hungry. The kettle whistled and he made himself some tea and sat down at the table in the corner. He ate his eggs and drank his tea and then sat back in his chair picking his teeth.

"Holy _flying_ **_fuck_** on a pogo stick." He said.


	2. Not All It's Cracked Up To Be

In This Chapter!

Eggs, Twilight Zone theories about vegatarianism, crappy cars, Diz, the Great Ninja Yuffie, Roxas' man purse, and Axel barf.

Mad love goes out to everyone who watched this, it means a lot guys! This is the good copy of this chapter, the other one was screwed up in the transfer.

…

Axel washed the dishes and went back to his room. Well, the room he assumed was his room; he hadn't ever seen it before. But it was exactly how he would have decorated his room, red walls, clothes littering the floor, posters slapped on the wall haphazardly, a lone mattress laying on the floor as a bed, and a computer in the corner glowing out from under a pile of books.

Axel flopped back on his bed and hoped he was dead. He didn't feel dead but he'd never been through the experience before so he had no way of knowing for sure. He rolled under the covers. Roxas was dead, Axel had seen him leave Sora's body, Axel had seen his light disappear.

Maybe it was wishful thinking, maybe the light that was Roxas had faded because it had become a light that was no longer Axel's Roxas. Either way he couldn't stand the idea of Roxas in Riku's arms, even if it wasn't really Roxas.

Axel wanted to sleep, that was what he had been hoping for, counting on even, sleep. When he had pushed his entire self into protecting Sora it was with the knowledge that he would get to rest after. No more longing for Roxas, no more ache from the place in his chest he wasn't supposed to have.

He would get to sleep.

Maybe forever.

Or at least burn in eternal hellfire or something.

Axel rolled again, his every nerve ending screaming at him to move, to do something.

Axel went to the kitchen.

Before Axel committed ecstatic suicide he would get glances of his somebody's life. His somebody had enjoyed food, had taken comfort in it, he had eaten to fill his thoughts and his time. It was sort of ironic that Axel hadn't enjoyed food. Axel had eaten as a necessity and no amount of tai noodles or sushi could change that.

Axel decided it was time to embrace his inner somebody, and even though he had just eaten he opened the cabinets, _his_ cabinets, and pulled out some corn tortillas only slightly molded around the edges.

Taco's it was then.

Axel slumped around the kitchen pulling vegetables out of the fridge and beans from the pantry. He was happy to see there was no meat in the house, it would make sense if it really was _his_ house.

Roxas and Axel had once had a conversation about meat and how Axel refused to eat it. "We think its okay to eat meat because animals aren't as smart as us," Axel had said. "But what if, I don't know, like, aliens came down and they were smarter then us and they decided that they could eat _us_." Roxas had rolled his eyes.

Axel put the beans on the stove and pulled a knife out of the block next to the sink.

Death wasn't what Axel had expected it to be.

And honestly, he was beginning to wonder if he was dead at all.

Axel glared down at the green pepper he was cutting, knife glinting as it sliced through the vegetable like it was warm butter.

Axel lifted the knife ignoring the smell of burning beans to the left of him. He brought the knife to his hand and dragged a jagged line across his wrist. It took a minute but suddenly there was pain, lots of it.

"**Shit**." Axel spat dropping the knife and cradling his hand against his shirt. He stumbled to the bathroom and yanked open the cupboard searching for a first aid kit. He knocked over a bottle of hair dye and make up but didn't find any band-aids.

He ran his hand under the faucet gasping as the hot water poured into the cut.

Well, he was alive.

He had to be, if he was dead when he cut himself it would magically heal, or not hurt, or something.

Right?

Right.

The flow from his wrist began to thin and he swathed his arm in toilet paper and went looking for more band-aids.

Axel opened his closet, it was stuffed to the brim with t-shirts and studded jeans, and at the end of the closet he found his Organization coat.

The Organization.

Axel took a deep breath.

They were all dead, all of them. It hadn't hit him before, not really. But it all came crashing down on him. He slumped against the wall gasping for breath.

They had been as close to friends as he had ever had. And now they were dead, all of them.

Except he wasn't dead.

Which meant, they probably weren't.

Which meant Roxas wasn't.

Axel blinked.

Roxas could be waking up in a house almost identical to the one Axel was in now. He could be cutting himself just like Axel had. He could be making pancakes like he did every Sunday morning.

Axel ran around his room searching for a phonebook. He didn't have one. Axel hissed and pulled his old Organization coat from its hanger throwing it over his shoulders and yanking up the hood. He ran out the door and down several flights of stairs before flinging the door open and startling a pigeon sitting in one of the cracks in the building.

Axel stopped mouth dropping open in slack surprise.

Warm sun greeted him, sky the color of orange juice with puffy white clouds, and gleaming gold buildings.

Axel found his gaze trailing upward sweeping up the smooth metal of the clock tower. He jerked his neck backwards staring at his apartment building. It was made of rusty looking brick, held together with chipped concrete and plaster; the windows had a blue tint that made them look plasticy, almost unreal. Practically fake set against the melting horizon of Twilight Town.

Axel was more freaked by the realization that he was in Twilight Town then he was by the fact he was _alive_. Twilight Town had been his place with Roxas, it was like some supernatural being had set him there as a message. Like God was saying, "you're alive; now go get your _motherfucking __**man**_".

Axel stuffed his hands down in his pockets and pulled a key out of one of them, a rusty old key on a "gotta love Destiny Islands" keychain. There was a parking lot beside Axel's apartment building with only two cars parked in it, one was a sports car with the top down that practically screamed "steal me", and the other was a rust eaten neon blue car with a window ducked taped closed.

Axel didn't have to think hard to figure out which car had to be his.

He had to use both hands to yank the door open and barely got it closed. The seatbelts swung in on him when he turned the key in the ignition and he yelped. It was like the fucking bat mobile except gross and not fast. The car gurgled and spat at Axel as he floored the gas, it barely lurched forward. It was running, but it was running very slowly. He cursed and rolled down the window making the wind blow his hair in his face, he rolled the window back up hissing.

Axel knew his way around Twilight Town like he knew the back of his hand, he basically drove on autopilot. He and Roxas would wander around Twilight Town when they were supposed to be on a mission avoiding the use of darkness because they knew Xemnas would be in their head within minutes. Xemnas could do that, none of the others could, it probably had to do with the fact that Xemnas' power was darkness, and copying other people's cool powers.

Swerving away from a pedestrian Axel lifted one hand and massaged the side of his head. He had forgotten why he had run out of his apartment like a madman. Axel sighed remembering the frantic search for a phone book. Previously it had seemed like a good idea, look Roxas up in the phone book, call him, and, what? Invite him over for a glass of fucking chardonnay? Axel didn't know what Roxas' last name was anyway. Probably Hart, just for the fucking irony of it.

Axel scanned his car for a wallet, an id of some kind. He found one in the glove box, peppered with silver studs, and flipped through it. He found twenty six dollars and probably a few more dollars in change and an id, another Axel was glaring out from the id with half dead eyes his hair pulled into a loose ponytail at the back of his head.

He ignored the picture and glared at the last name, Adair.

Axel _fucking_ Adair.

It could have been worse. He shoved the id back in his wallet and pulled to a stop.

Everything about Axel's appearance screamed psycho bomber. The way he slammed the door to his car and skulked down the street, the way his Organization coat billowed out at his feet. The fact that he was wearing his Organization coat even though sweat was dripping down his forehead and into his eyes. The sun beat down on Axel as he stopped and stared across the street at a man dressed as warmly as he was, layered in cloaks and pouches and _bandages_.

Axel froze. When Roxas was stuck in the Twilight Town simulation there had been only one person he was mad at. That person was never Roxas, as much as he wanted to be full out pissed at the boy, as much as he wanted to **hate** him, he never could.

The person he hated stood mere feet away from Axel.

Axel stalked through the middle of the street nearly walking into cars his features smeared into a caricature of calm. All of Axel's hate directed toward the man almost directly across from him, the man was beginning to turn around and Axel's hand curled into a fist pulling back as if on its own accord.

Axel's face was still the façade of calm, mouth cut into a serene frown.

The man opened his mouth to speak as Axel's fist flew connecting with the side of the man's face with a sickening thud. The man dropped to the ground like a lead balloon, sliding to the earth like it was rehearsed.

Axel's calm began to flicker, to jump out of place for seconds at a time.

"Axel." The man said practically yelling the x.

"What?" Axel snapped.

"You're bleeding."

Axel looked down at his left wrist still wrapped in toilet paper and curled into a fist dripping blood. "Shit!" Axel pulled off the toilet paper now sticking to his skin in pale moist clumps. He pressed his hand against his jacket trying to stifle the blood flow. Diz picked himself off the ground.

Diz let out a throaty laugh.

"Shut the fuck up old man." Axel hissed pulling his right hand away from his body grinning. Ready to pull out the revenge he'd been stocking up for a year. He called up fire all around them. Swirling like that one fight he had with Roxas in the simulated Twilight Town, the fight he had let Roxas win because he couldn't hurt him, as much as he wanted to. Axel shot fire at Diz and watched him burn slowly, the thick smell of flesh cooking filling his nostrils and permeating the air.

Except nothing happened.

Axel tried again while Diz looked on with an amused smile.

Axel growled leaning against a streetlight feeling dizzy he pushed a hand against his chest willing himself to breath.

"_Holy __**shit**_!" Axel screeched jumping back and stumbling into a gutter.

"Diz!" A girl wearing shorts too short to be legal shouted stumbling forward from the crowd tugging a man with brown hair and a scar. They grouped around Diz.

"Don't move Organization scum, the great ninja Yuffie is here!" She crowed.

Axel ignored them and stared down at his chest placing his left palm flat against his chest. A rapid "_ba-dum, ba-dum_" echoed against his hand and he flopped backwards into a puddle of water.

"Jesus Christ."

Roxas woke to his cell phone buzzing by his nose. Roxas' hand seemed to move on its own accord, snatching his phone and furiously mashing buttons. The phone stopped vibrating and he buried his head under his white comforter. His phone started vibrating again, he jolted upright in bed, thrashing violently and throwing his pillow against the wall. He glared at the phone as if it was its fault Roxas had set the alarm for six. He crammed down the END button and was greeted by the picture of Hayner and him smiling on the beach. Water and sweat was rolling down both their faces dripping into their mouths. Hayner's arm was draped over Roxas and the sun beat down on their blonde hair. Roxas glared at the white six o' two in the corner and set the phone down on his nightstand.

He pushed himself out of bed before tripping on his sheets and landing on the floor with a muddled thump. He groaned. After a minute he rolled over and grabbed the shirt under his bed. Blinking sleep from his eyes he staggered up and over to his dresser banging his shin on the post of his bed.

He groaned again and tugged the bottom drawer of his dresser open pulling out a clean pair of jeans and tugging them on. Roxas spent ten minutes trying to find the shoes he had tossed to opposite ends of the room when he crawled into bed the previous night. His converse were gross, seriously gross. They had sharpie scribbles over sharpie scribbles. The sides had long gashes running between the fabric and the rubber; it looked like somebody had knifed them in the middle of the night. Olette and Pence stole his shoes once and tried to throw them away, but Roxas and Hayner stole Pence's teddy bear and held it for ransom, a counterstrike they called it. Roxas loved his shoes, even though they ripped a bit with every step he took, and even though there wasn't a single place on the rubber that still remained white, he loved them.

Roxas slipped out the door at six twenty, shoes gently patting down the concrete, the messenger bag Hayner hated swung over his shoulder. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned it off of vibrate. Now that he was out of the house he didn't have to worry about his parents waking up. He shivered a bit in the crisp morning air, that's how summers were in Twilight Town, easy cool mornings followed by sweltering heat and mind-blowing humidity closely followed by thunder and/or hail storms that slowly melded into comfortable (if mildly damp) evenings.

Roxas turned into downtown. Streetlights flickering off as morning cast a faint pink glow over the golden buildings of Twilight Town. Most of the shops were still dark, Twilight Town was small and had a kind of unspoken rule that no one was allowed to open before seven, so that the people didn't have to get up before seven. Except for the coffee shop, the coffee shop had to be open twenty-four/seven another one of Twilight Town's rules. As Roxas stepped inside the shop the warm smell of coffee enveloped him and he let out a tiny sigh of relief he didn't even know he had been holding in. He was tempted to just tell Hayner to move his own damn stuff into his new apartment and just sit there for the rest of the day. But he forced his body into motion and approached the counter. The girl on the other side of the register smiled at Roxas bright and bubbly, her hair pulled into a tight ponytail, _she_ had obviously already had her morning cup.

"What can I do for you today, sir?" She asked bouncing up on her heels. Roxas bit back a scowl; _he_ had not had his morning cup.

"I'll take a coffee."

"What size?"

"Large." Roxas always bought large coffees, he thought that coffee should come in those big gulp cups you can get at the seven eleven.

Roxas' phone started to ring, blaring the song Hayner had dubbed his "theme song".

Roxas flipped it open. "What Hayner?" He asked rubbing his temples exasperatedly.

"Where are you man?" Hayner yelled into the phone.

"You told me to get there around six thirty."

"It's six _fucking_ thirty now."

"You said _around_ six thirty." Roxas rolled his eyes and smiled apologetically to the girl now making his coffee. She just brushed it off with a flip of her hand and resumed pouring.

"Whatever, just pick me up some coffee, I know that's where you are."

"Fine, but you better pay me back!" Hayner had years of outstanding coffee debts stacked against his name.

"Will that be all sir?" Asked the girl smiling in the way that suckers people in to buying scones.

"Can I have another cup please?"

Roxas stalked over to the counter and began filling Hayner's coffee with sugar. Hayner only liked his coffee when it tasted like chocolate milk.

The girl handed him the other coffee and smiled at him tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear. Roxas sighed.

"I'll take a blueberry scone then."

Roxas paid and stepped back out into the cool morning. On any other morning he would have stopped at the clock tower and watched the sunrise, but Hayner wanted to move out before the heat kicked in and they had a lot to move.

He turned down the road to Hayner's parent's house. They were gone for the week and Hayner wanted to move out before they got back, sort of a surprise, sort of a clean break. Roxas had moved into their apartment the week before and setting up the appliances and living room the way _he _wanted them. And he'd be damned if Hayner was going to change it around once he moved in. Hayner was laying on the stoop outside, his truck parked in front of him. Roxas shoved the cup of coffee under his nose.

Hayner cracked an eye open and grabbed the cup.

"Nice man purse."

Roxas flipped him off and threw his messenger bag on top of Hayner's stomach. He sat up and glared at Roxas chewing on his scone.

"Why didn't you buy me a scone?" Whined Hayner.

"Because you are an ass that doesn't pay me back for coffee and wakes me up at six."

"You suck, I have to buy my own meals from now on and you won't even chip in for a fucking scone."

"Have fun living on ramen." Roxas took a vicious bite and chewed like it was better then sex.

Hayner pushed him off the stoop and stood up. "Alright, let's get this shit done."

Roxas sighed pushing himself off of the stairs and pulling his bag out from the dirt.

Hayner's parent's apartment was nondescript like the rest of Twilight Town. Twilight Town had to be the most perfect place in the world, the economy was great (except for the price of the fucking watermelons) and nobody was unhappy. In that really generic kind of way. Roxas threw his bag in the truck and followed Hayner up the gray steps. Inside it was the same nondescript hallway. When they walked into the living room on the third floor it was nice, but that was all, nice. Roxas sipped his coffee tentatively, and they walked into Hayner's room. Which was nondescript, but only in the way that it could be any teenager's room, littered with clothes and cd's and smelling like old socks and Axe.

Roxas kicked a pair of Hayner's boxers to the side and raised an eyebrow. "You got me up at six to clean your room?"

Hayner shrugged and shoved a pile of clothes into his hamper. Roxas followed suit and shoved Hayner's school books into the bookbag lying under his bed. Hayner turned the radio in the corner on and it started blaring some nondescript rock station. Roxas snorted and folded the clothes he knew to be clean placing them neatly in Hayner's dresser.

Hayner's parents did everything to keep Hayner mild mannered, which only made him more hot headed. They strictly forbid him from participating in Struggle Tournaments, so he never missed a chance to beat someone with a bat. And they tried to keep him in the house every night, which is why he constantly snuck out to fight with Seifer in the streets. Hayner's parents weren't actually oppressive, they just wanted their son to be normal and safe, and unfortunately Hayner wanted the exact opposite. It also didn't help that he had a severe problem with authority.

Roxas finished his coffee and Hayner grabbed the cup stalking out of the room. Roxas continued cleaning the closet and making distressed noises at what he was finding there.

"Holy shit Hayner, is that a fucking grape? Do you eat grapes in your closet?" Roxas asked when he heard steps behind him. Hayner smacked him in the back of the head and Roxas turned around ready to flip him off, but a bag of Cheetos was shoved under his nose.

"I'm cleaning out all the food they won't eat, want any?"

Roxas shoved the bag away and resumed cleaning. "You're gonna make this room even messier, you know that right?"

"Whatever." Hayner plopped down on his bed and shoved a handful into his mouth. Roxas sighed and threw the pile of molding grapes into the trash.

Roxas sighed and glanced around the room. "Get off the bed, we've gotta take it apart."

Hayner swiped his hand against his camouflage comforter leaving an orange smear.

Roxas rolled his eyes and pushed Hayner off.

"Do we have to take the bed apart?" Hayner whined.

"We do if you want to get it down two flights of narrow apartment stairs."

Hayner pushed himself up and pulled the comforter off rolling it up into a ball and shoving it into one last duffel bag.

Roxas pulled the yellow tinged sheets off and made a face.

Hayner grabbed them and shoved them behind the comforter. "Just shut up and pull the mattress off." Roxas tugged the mattress off the bed and pushed it up against the wall.

Hayner was going to work with a screwdriver on his end of the bed.

"I'll start taking stuff out to the truck." Roxas stood and stretched, loading up with duffel bags and hampers full of clothes. He waddled down the two flights on stairs, shuffling awkwardly to get around people on their way to work. He finally made it to the car and dumped the duffel bags in the back and shoved the hamper in the front seat where Roxas would be sitting. Roxas glared at the sun beginning to bear down on his neck and Roxas pulled out his cell phone, he groaned internally at the time. He trudged back up the stairs to find Hayner sitting on the floor, bed dismantled.

"Are you going to load that or are you just gonna sit around being an ass?" Roxas growled.

"Touchy!" Hayner held his hands up as if protecting his face. "I was waiting on you so we could get the mattress down.

Roxas ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry, just grouchy cause someone woke me up at six to do all his dirty work."

"God, that guy sounds like an ass." Hayner went to pick up one side on the mattress.

"Oh, he is. And he's really ugly too. I almost feel bad for the guy."

Hayner chucked a shoe lying in an open duffel bag at Roxas' head. Roxas rolled his eyes and grabbed the other end of the mattress.

They tugged the mattress down the stairs, bending it around corners in ways they didn't know it could bend.

When they got there Roxas pulled the duffel bags out of the bed of the truck and they shoved the mattress in. The back of the mattress stuck out and blocked the back window, but Roxas just shoved the duffel bags on top of it and climbed back up the stairs. They were done loading in five minutes and Hayner stared at the apartment that he had once lived in.

Roxas put a hand on his shoulder. "Dude, you should go back up and write them a note or something."

Hayner turned around an evil gleam in his eye.

"Fuck no man, I'm free."

"I meant so they knew you weren't kidnapped or something."

"Jesus Roxas, you worry too much, I left them a message on their cells."

Roxas shrugged and rolled his eyes. "Then get in the damn truck."

Hayner jumped in the driver's side of the car as Roxas crawled in his side pushing the hamper in between him and Hayner.

Hayner's truck was a piece of shit. The white paint was rusting off revealing metal tinged red with rust. It was a death trap, broke down every time they tried to leave Twilight Town. Roxas had to hold his door shut as they rattled through the back alleys, but Hayner loved his truck. It was the first thing he really bought for himself. Roxas didn't understand his hunger for independence, Roxas also didn't understand how Hayner could have a car and not be constantly trying to get out of town. Roxas hated Twilight Town; he didn't necessarily hate the people there, except Seifer. It wasn't even that Twilight Town was too small or anything, and really, he probably didn't hate Twilight Town. He just felt lost there. And he could only believe that it was the town that made him feel lost. He really hoped he was right, that it wasn't something internal. He really didn't want to see the psychologist, there was only one, and he lived right next door to Roxas.

But Hayner loved his truck.

Axel blinked a few times as his head swirled, and then he rolled over on his stomach and puked his fucking guts out.

"Well that's just perfect, now I have to go and clean that up." Someone huffed from beside him.

Axel remained silent trying to keep his eyes closed. He groaned.

"Oh what? What's the matter?" The girl voiced again sounding pissed.

"I left my stove on."

The girl snorted.

"Was making tacos." Axel chimed.

"So Nobodies eat? That's weird."

"What are you talking about," Axel grumbled sitting up and opening his eyes a crack. "Of course we fucking eat, it's not like we don't have stomachs." His eyes fell unfocused on the girls face. It was hard to tell what she looked like, she was mainly a white blob with a black blob on top. "I feel like I have a hangover." Axel moaned.

"You puke like you have one too." She quipped.

Axel closed his eyes and tilted his head back, his left hand seemed to drift to his chest and lay against the thin fabric of his t-shirt. He could feel the steady rhythm beneath his hand echoing up to his collarbone. Axel mused silently as he heard the girl beside him laying down towels.

"I didn't even eat anything." He said. Axel practically _felt_ the girl roll her eyes.

"Looks like eggs."

"Oh wait, I did have some of those."

Axel opened his eyes again this time able to make out the girl with her black bob swinging against her face. He saw the ninja headband looped around her head and smiled.

"Why aren't you in Hollow Bastion?" The answer didn't really matter, Diz controlled things here, he could put people where ever he wanted.

"Merlin sent us," she smiled. "Said there was something we had to see. We found Diz, we thought he'd died. Merlin did some weird seer shit and said he saw him cross over or something." She smiled. "He said you guys were dead too."

Axel smiled thinly.

"You look fucking pale," Yuffie quipped. "You lost a shit load of blood. Hasn't anyone ever told you to go down the road, not across the street?"

Axel glared at his wrist now wrapped in gauze and tape.

"Hey Yuffie." He muttered. She looked up startled. "Feel this." He grabbed her hand and pulled her across his lap. She looked like she was going to round house kick him in the face as he pressed her hand against his chest.

Her face faltered and she pulled up.

"I'm going to go get Diz." She ran out of the room short shorts riding up even more. Axel gritted his teeth at the thought of Diz.

He prodded at his chest again a puzzled expression crossing his face.

Diz billowed in, followed by Yuffie.

"Where's Roxas?" Axel demanded sitting up further from the wall.

"Why did Yuffie bring me here so urgently?"

"Goddamn it Diz!"

"Fine, I'll bite." Diz drawled. "Where is Roxas?"

Axel gnashed down on his teeth eyes narrowing.

"That's what I'm asking you."

"In Sora, I assume." Diz looking down at Axel condescendingly.

"Wrong." Axel hissed.

It was impossible to read Diz's expression through his bandages. "Now what is it that I was so rudely disrupted for?" Diz took two steps forward and Axel grabbed his hand and tugged him forward. Diz stumbled and his hand landed on Axel's chest.

Axel glared at Diz through slitted eyes.

Diz's one eye grew wide and Axel crossed his arms and looked away.

Diz's breathing became rapid and his palms became sweaty, Axel pushed him off.

"Fucking pedophile." He muttered. Yuffie shot him a glare but Diz didn't notice.

"This is very interesting." Diz turned to Axel his one eye shining. "Yuffie stay." Diz stalked out of the room ragged red cloak billowing out from under his heels.

"So what are you," Axel drawled. "His puppy?"

Yuffie shot him a smile.

"One day I'm going to punch you so hard you'll jizz blood."

Axel retreated to the back of the cot.

…


End file.
